Skyline Mk2

[Gambit]

Cheers Ovais.

Well I found out whats next

After finally setting up the profec I've got that flat spot from 5000-6000 RPM, and as I've experienced it before I knew it was overfuelling.
So somewhere in the postal system are these...




Now I know I'd be better off with an Fcon but I'm not chasing big bhp, a well set up stage 1 car is cheaper to run and maintain.
As soon as there here, damn you postman, I can use the Blazt cable and software in conjunction with my AEM wideband to see whats what and then I can start tweaking again

[Gambit]

About time I updated this I guess...

Well, the neo and blatz cable turned up and all was going well...until.

The AFM and the lambda both went belly up on me!. Couldn't keep the AFR's on the gauge at idle or cruise as she was running so lean, tried mapping it out with the NEO but it was hopeless.

Using the blazt setup I was able to monitor the lambda readings, this very quickly told me that the lambda was screwed.
At the time I was using the AEM to emulate the standard lambda so I could run my EGT gauge in the lambda hole. I'm still unsure what caused it but the AEM wideband stopped outputting the corrected voltage to the ecu.

Any who, bought a new lambda and thought all was going to be well until I found I was still having running issues. Quick look at the NEO showed me the AFM voltage was a steady .9 volts no matter what I tried. My answer, a nice shiny Q45 with apexi intake on it coutesy of CraigR. Tweaked the NEO again and the car was running ok, but a new problem showed up.

Boost creep and a LOT of it.

Joining the A27 one night I gave the accelerator a bit of a prod and was quite surprised at how well she pulled, the almighty bang and flash that lit up the entire car on the gear change was nice too.... seeing 1.15 bar wasn't though

Crawled back and home and went back to basics. Over the next few days and weeks I checked all the hoses, wiring connections, timing, changed the actuator, everything I could see or think of. Could'nt find anything amiss so I asked around and the general concensus was that due to the mods I'd done the wastegate just couldn't cope. So the only answer was a bigger turbo

The car was still driveable but any hard acceleration just meant 1bar plus, was about this point I noticed that the clutch was letting go. Hardly surprising as it was the stock one being hit with over a bar of boost. Went back to CraigR where I managed to buy back the exeedy clutch I sold him many moons ago, round to Andy at SP and she was soon back to actually accelerating and not just revving.

Now, I already have the AFM, injectors etc to keep a new tubby happy but didnt want to try it with just a NEO to run it all. So I went hunting for some management and a tubby.

CraigR came to the rescue yet again, while I was picking up the clutch he pointed out that he had a nice little turbo and exhaust manifold that he had originally planned to put on the car when he owned it, seemed quite fitting to take it off his hands.





Next was good old ebay to the rescue where I picked up an Emanage Ultimate, harness and sofware for peanuts.



Now, as I can fit an emanage quicker and easier than replacing the turbo, fitting injectors making up an exhaust etc I figured I'd throw that on and get the car running as well as I could with it.
Hour an half of cutting, soldering, taping and testing the emanage was fitted and I was playing
Not for too long unfortunately as the ultimate can't read a Q45, so quick chat to Andy W and Chippers Z32 is soon on the car. Wired in the AEM wideband and went for a quick drive to check the emanage out. All I can say is the injector autotune feature is fantastic!

It managed to adjust all the fuelling to more sensible numbers, between 11.8 and 12 to 1 at full throttle with 14-15:1 at cruise. The interesting side effect of this is it completely removed the boost creep, I was holding .5-.7 bar right the way through to the redline.

This lead to an interesting problem, I'd just bought a big turbo to cure a boost creep that I no longer have. The answer is obvious, push the stock one as far as it can go until I can afford to fit the big tubby properly

With that new goal it was time to up the boost

[Gambit]

Started at .7, fuelling was adjusted and the car went fantastic, .8 and as soon as I hit boost I was kissing the windscreen.
Checked the datalogs and nothing seemed to indicate the cause of the problem, just that my injectors where shutting off for no apparent reason. So while I brooded over the issues I had a play with the interior, moving the gauges on top of the dash in preperation for a screen to be fitted into the dash. As I've got the emanage might as well see the datalog in the car without dragging a a laptop everywhere



After a day or two I had an incling about my cutting out problem.
Spoke to Roadrunner and the legend that he is he let me borrow a stock AFM for a day or two. Got that on and did a few more runs which showed the problem all too well...5000rpm and a maxxed out AFM causing fuel cut.



Now I was surprised at this as I figured the Z32 would have been the answer, turns out the emanage doesnt use the higher voltage range. It instead converts it down to a stock voltage signal. But it does send the Z32 voltages to the datalogs which is why I missed it to start with.

The other thing that surprised me at this time was the silly cow in a mercedes A-class ploughing into my car on a roundabout and driving off!





Think she got off lightly all things considered, but I'm making her insurance pay for everything. Good job as the repair quote was nigh on £1600!!


So a new wing, headlight and bumper are in order, managed to bodge it back together for now with the good old use of cable ties.
And while I was there, got rid of that grill badge thats been bugging me for a loooong time now, going from this...



to this....




Had to change the indicators as that Mercedes modification ripped the wires out the original ones, but I'm not sure if I prefer the clear lenses or the orange ones.

[Gambit]

After getting the car roadworthy again it was back onto ebay and I have a map sensor winging its way to me



Not just a straight swap over but after 30minutes of datalogging the stock AFM's voltages I was able to switch over to the map sensor.

She ran, all be it hesitantly at first. Did some cruising/full rev runs in 1st and 2nd and she settled down nicely, tweaked the launch control, reset the rev limit from 7500 back down to 6900 (the hydraulic lifters really dont like more than 7200/7300RPM) . All I have left to do now is sort out the cold start idle, wire in the clutch pedal switch for flat shifting and start remapping it again.


As the car was running properly again, I decided to do some more playing with the electrics
In between sorting Al Stars wiring I picked up an intellistart and smart windows kit to go onto my clifford alarm, along with the lead to connect it to the car computer that will be going back in. While looking through the wiring I thought about automating the mirrors off the alarm, as you do lol.

Took a few minutes to figure out all the wiring but with a couple of relays, an adaptation to the control switch I worked out how to make the mirrors close on the alarm arming, open on disarming and still let the interior switch open and close the mirrors if neccessary.



Then took the dash switch apart to modify that a little bit, removing one electrical contact to stop it sending 12v to the mirrors but keeping the angle adjuster working.




Just need to fiind some spare time to fit it all now lol.

[Bubble]

Wow you have been busy

[Squeak]

Blimey, someones been a busy boy.. apart from the woman driving into you everything else looks great and coming along nicely

[Gambit]

Aye, it started off as a simple few bits and pieces and has slowly started to spiral again. No pictures yet but I've now got the computer in, touchscreen fitted, alarm's been tweaked and I've had to buy another soldering iron lol.

[Honey]

A few simple bits and pieces...yes, you keep telling yourself that.

It's not possible to stop at just a few bits and pieces, especially when someone else shows you their goodies.

[Trev]

especially when someone else shows you their goodies.

Filth!

[Gambit]

I know, its outrageous isn't it Trev... but I will admit to sampling Honey's goodies while over at SP at the weekend



Yes, I do mean the rather tastey rock cakes

[Trev]

This club is pure filth, I'm shocked and disgusted

[Gambit]

Right, moving away from the filth so Trev doesnt get offended lol...

Here's the computer, and the challenge is making it fit.




1ghz processor, 1gb DDR Ram, 40gb HDD, intergrated sound, video and lan. Specific power supply designed for use in cars with voltage protection (shouldn't let the battery get so flat it wont start the car).

First thing I did was remove the dash facia, and sand it all down as it was looking rather tatty, did the gearstick surround and drivers side switch panel surround too.

The screen I got (yet another ebay special) came with a cradle supposedly for fitting into a headrest. Using that as a template I hacked the facia up well and truly, removing the defrost and hazard switches completely and slicing the poor old clock in half.

A bit...well...a lot of plastic welder later I have the cradle securely attached to the facia. Out comes the plasti-kote primer and a few coats of matt black to neaten everything up.

This left me some issues, first what to do with the hole for the clock, secondly where do I put the hazard and heater switches and lastly what about the heater controls.

The clock, well being a bit geeky I thought why not put it to good use. While I had most of the interior out I put in a few extra cables which ran from what's left of the clock to the computer.

Fitted an led behind the remnants of the plastic cover and now use that as the "on" led for the pc and the clcoks reset button is now the pc's reset button

Next up were the "extras", fitted in the wireless usb holder onto the parcel shelf, ran the cliffnet wizard cable from the alarm back to the boot, put in a usb extender cable with 4 port hub fitted under the centre glovebox along with all the other essentials like vga and ps/2 cables.



The next bit I blame Smokey for entirely, at the last Hampshire meet I went to I had a good look at his in car video set up and thought hmmmm...... I like that.
So, ebay provided a nice little dongle which lets me connect a composite or component video source to the computer.... I have the 4 way switcher but still need to source the cameras but it seems to be working fine so far.

So the cam2usb, touchscreen, and wireless dongle took up 3 of the 5 usb ports and with a bit of cable re-routing I have the cables from the Emanage and Blatz one now in the hub.


That was the easy part, now to find somewhere to fit the aircon controls.

As the glovebox was full of emanage, the only real option was inside the centre glovebox, don't really use it so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Right up to the point I realised I had to extend 32 wires for it, and another 14 for the heater and hazard switches!!

Ah well, I bought a new soldering iron time to break it in I guess.


The end result......

[Gambit]

Went from this.



To this.







And just to finish off the sad/geeky touch...since I destroyed the clock I have this for the screensaver.





So whats the point of this in-car pc?

Well it stores manuals for the car, gauges etc, has the Blazt and Emanage software for fault diagnosis, data logging and mapping, wireless for all those free wi-fi spots, camera's for in car video footage, cliffnet wizard for talking to the alarm and monitoring/adjusting it as needed (not to mention being able to start the car via touchscreen ) I don't have it set up for music etc as I'm keping the Clarion system, as that has Radio, TV, DSP, MP3, CD-R, CD-RW, Sat-Nav, DVD and touchscreen control. At least I will be when it comes back from being repaired


With all this set up I decided to finish off by moving the E-Manage behind the glovebox. It was going to stay put but as all the wiring was done, all the ports filled and a usb cable permanently fitted there was no point leaving it there. And it gave me a glovebox back

Now, back to the outside of the car.

As I'd said earlier I really wanted a set of Japslaon's GroundFX spats, unfortunately £300 was a little out of my budget, but £80 off ebay was fine. Turned up in a couple of days had a bit of spray thrown on to them to see how they looked and I'm very happy with the overall effect. Obviously need finishing off properly but I'm going to wait until I've sorted out the sideskirts first.




Only real problem was the exhaust sat too high and was going to melt things, so bought some slightly longer mounts and all was well

Next step, well that will be a set of sideskirts as the spats are too low for the stock ones. Hopefully the insurance will then be sorted and the front bumper and wing can be sorted and the bodywork can be sorted out to a higher standard.

[Captain Drift]

Gambit,
this is great,
Where is the in-car PC from?

[Gambit]

The case and parts were from good old eBay but I put it together myself